Avoiding long-term opioids from the start is ideal. However, for patients with chronic pain who have been successfully managed on long-term opioids, benefits and risk must be considered carefully, and care needs to be individualized for each patient. In order to better address the needs of providers and patients living with pain, updates to the 2016 CDC Guideline for Prescribing Opioids for Chronic Pain have been developed and are expected to be available in late 2022. These updates will address the integration of non-opioid treatment options, meeting the needs of patients who need opioids, strategies for safe and effective tapering, and identifying when referral to a pain specialist is warranted.
In this second installment of a REMS BriefCase series on pain management, faculty will discuss the CDC Guideline updates and how to successfully implement them into practice to improve health-related quality of life (HRQoL) for patients with chronic pain. Upon completion, learners will leave equipped with the strategies necessary for safe and competent prescribing of opioids.
At the end of this CME/CE activity, participants should be able to incorporate the updated CDC Guideline for Prescribing Opioids to practice for safe and competent prescribing and improve health-related quality of life (HRQoL) for patients with chronic pain.
This activity is supported by an independent educational grant from the Opioid Analgesic REMS Program Companies.
Please click here for a listing of REMS Program Companies. This activity is intended to be fully compliant with the Opioid Analgesic REMS education requirements issued by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Physicians, surgeons, dentists, physician associates (PAs), nurse practitioners (NPs), nurses, and pharmacists
It is the policy of CME Outfitters, LLC, to ensure independence, balance, objectivity, and scientific rigor and integrity in all of their CE activities. Faculty must disclose to the participants any relationships with commercial companies whose products or devices may be mentioned in faculty presentations, or with the commercial supporter of this CE activity. CME Outfitters, LLC, has evaluated, identified, and mitigated any potential conflicts of interest through a rigorous content validation procedure, use of evidence-based data/research, and a multidisciplinary peer review process.
Dr. Weimer reports the following financial relationships: Consultant: CVS Health and Path CCM, Inc.
Ms. Broglio reports no financial relationships to disclose.
The following peer reviewer and CME Outfitters staff have no financial relationships:
Faculty of this CE activity may include discussions of products or devices that are not currently labeled for use by the FDA. The faculty have been informed of their responsibility to disclose to the audience if they will be discussing off-label or investigational uses (any uses not approved by the FDA) of products or devices.
Post-tests, credit request forms, and activity evaluations must be completed online (requires free account activation), and participants can print their certificate or statement of credit immediately (75% pass rate required). This website supports all browsers except Internet Explorer for Mac. For complete technical requirements and privacy policy, visit our Privacy & Confidentiality page.
